is a Japanese

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. Take began working in the film industry without any formal training. Among his first contributions to film productions as an

assistant director The role of an assistant director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have to tak ...

were ''Gonin'' (1995) and ''Gonin 2'' (1996, both directed by Takashi Ishii). After some more years as an assistant director, his first own film as director followed in 2006, . After that he worked for several years as both director and assistant director. An important role model for Take at that time was the director

Kazuyuki Izutsu is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and film critic. Career Born in Nara Prefecture, Izutsu started making 8mm films in high school, and directed his first 35mm movie film, 35mm film, a pink film, in 1975. He earned a citation from the Di ...

for whom Take worked as assistant director in many films, including '' Get Up! / Geroppa!'' in 2003, '' Break Through! / Pacchigi!'' in 2005, and ''Fly with the Gold'' / ''Ōgon o daite tobe'' in 2012. Take achieved some popularity when his film '' 100 Yen Love'' (百円の恋, ''Hyakuen no koi'', 2014) was submitted for the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Du ...

as Best Foreign Language Film (though ultimately not nominated). For Take, this honour came as a surprise, as he himself said. ''100 Yen Love'' is about a woman working as a shop assistant in a 100-yen shop who takes up boxing. In 2017, Take revisited the theme of

combat sport A combat sport, or fighting sport, is a competitive contact sport that usually involves one-on-one combat. In many combat sports, a contestant wins by scoring more points than the opponent, submitting the opponent with a hold, disabling the oppon ...

in , a film about

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

. from 2018 is Take's first and to date only film for which he also wrote the script. It is based on Fuminori Nakamuras debut novel of the same title from 2002. ''The Gun'' is about a university student who accidentally comes into possession of a handgun. In a review, a critic compared the film to Japanese New Wave cinema and

Nagisa Ōshima was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. One of the foremost directors within the Japanese New Wave, his films include ''In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976), a sexually explicit film set in 1930s Japan, and ''Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence' ...

, and praised the performance of main actor Nijirō Murakami. In 2019, Take directed a television series for the first time (''

The Naked Director is a Japanese semi-biographical comedy-drama streaming television series co-directed by Masaharu Take. Based on the non-fiction novel by Nobuhiro Motohashi, it tells the story of Japanese adult video director Toru Muranishi. The series premi ...

''). His 2018 film was so successful that a sequel followed in 2020, also directed by Take. As his influences and personal favourites, Take names the directors Yūzō Kawashima,

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

and the aforementioned Kazuyuki Izutsu, as well as actress

Ayako Wakao is a Japanese actress who was one of the country's biggest stars of the 20th century. Biography Wakao began her career contracted to Daiei Studios in 1951 as part of the fifth "New Face" group. She has gone on to appear in over 100 feature films ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Take, Masaharu 1967 births Living people People from Chita, Aichi Japanese film directors